When Secrets Come to Light
by MelancholyAndBlithe
Summary: Whilst travelling, Iona discovers her Thane is a vampire. Fill from SKM Slight Iona X Female!Dovahkiin


I did this as a fill from SkyrimKinkMeme. First FanFiction on this site. My pilot, if you will. Hope you like it. Reviews and Concrit are accepted and encouraged. Please and thank you.

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 **So after dragging Onmund (the Nord College mage apprentice) all over Skyrim with my vampire Dragonborn, I always wondered why he didn't react at** ** _all_** **to her breaking into peoples' homes to drink their blood.**

 **I mean, I understood it from a 'it's a videogame' point of view, but it still seemed silly.**

 **So I want a female vampire Dragonborn (any race, honestly, like, I must confess I love elves to death but I know others prefer humans and what-not) who goes around breaking into homes and sucking blood.**

 **Her follower and love interest (any gender, any race, whoever's your favourite) the first time thinks they're going to rob the person, then realises that no, no that's not what's happening here.**

 **Cue him/her confronting the DB once they leave the house about this vampirism thing, wondering if the DB has fed off them, etc. I, uh, want the DB to somehow convince her LI that she's mostly harmless (as harmless as a vampire can be, anyway) and the LI keeping her secret, or something like that, because I am a sucker for the happy ends.**

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Melvalie pursed her lips, carefully maneuvering her lockpick, feeling tumblers click and fall into place behind her feather light touch. A ghost of a smile graced her lips as she felt the last of the tumblers tick and the lock gave way, allowing Melvalie and Iona to slip into the house. She crept forward, light footfalls barely making a sound on the old wooden floors beneath her and her taller Nord woman follower as they moved forward.

The house was small, only one room and everything being lit by the cooking fire on the opposite end of the room. Resting against one of the walls was a splintered simple bookcase with about ten books on it, all covered in dust. Some had more dust than others. There was a small table, set with only two chairs and simple eating ware, all wooden with small amounts of food sitting on it. Melvalie looked around and her eyes met her prize; a small singular bed near the fire with a lone sleeping figure tucked into the threadbare blankets. Melvalie felt her lips quirk into yet another smile, carefully treading over to the sleeping person.

"So what are we here to steal? This person can't hardly have enough to rub two septims together, let alone have anything worthwhile." Iona remarked, scanning the room herself. She'd assumed that the reason they were there in the first place was to steal something. She'd believed her Thane had broken into this person's house to comb it over for whatever valuables they may have had. Admittedly, she didn't know how she'd feel about her Thane taking something from someone this poor, but she followed anyway, her purpose to serve and not to question.

Melvalie didn't do much else other than shush her Nord follower and settled by the bed, looming over the unknown person, in peaceful repose.

'Is she pickpocketing them?' Iona thought, creeping forward a bit. She earned a stern look from Melvalie as her heavy armor clanked into place, the armor to be used for cacophonous fighting that Nords were typically used to, and not the stealth she tried to use whenever she and her Thane went travelling.

The Dunmer woman pulled down the threadbare sheet slightly obscuring the neck of the house owner. She felt her lips water. It'd been too long since she'd had blood. She usually made a point to feed before she and Iona went anywhere, or she'd wait until after if she could, but it had already been too long since she'd had any and she knew she couldn't wait any longer. Wanting for a distraction to her well meaning housecarl, Melvalie scanned the area one more time before settling on the bookshelf.

"Check the shelf for any hollowed books. Maybe they have stashes there." Melvalie whispered a command.

"But are you sure? This person-"

"Do as I say." Melvalie barked in as loud a whisper as she could.

Iona pursed her lips, shaking her head a little before sighing and relenting to her Thane's orders. She crept over to the bookshelf, thumbing through the miniscule amount of titles, trying to find one that might have a stash hidden in it. This person had both issues of The Lusty Argonian Maid. Iona scoffed, picking them up and thumbing through them, spying a crude joke on a page and smirking before returning to the task at hand.

Melvalie inched closer to her prey's neck, being able to hear the throb of a steady heartbeat pulsing through their veins. Finally she sunk her teeth in, never being able to get over how easily her sharp new incisors cut through flesh like biting into fresh bread. She irony liquid she sought after filled her mouth and made her sigh in relief as she felt the feral instincts of vampirism being quelled. By the taste of the blood, she figured this person was a Nord. Figures. She'd hoped for something less common like Argonian or Redguard or something. She couldn't remember the last time she'd tasted Altmer blood...

Iona had had enough looking. She put down her third book, letting out an exasperated breath before looking around her area of the room one more time. The Nord woman turned to her Thane.

"My Thane, I think we're wasting our time here. Surely this...wait what're you doing?" Iona's voice raised until she was almost yelling. Melvalie relinquished her grip on the neck of her prey and sent Iona a fierce look, forgetting her chin was covered in blood. The Nord prey began to stir, being disturbed by Iona's alarm. Melvalie cursed fiercely and began making her way to the door.

"Let's go!" She ordered, flinging the door open, allowing Iona to escape first before following suit. Both women bolted away from the cabin, making a considerable distance before stopping at a safe enough location. At this time a night, hardly a soul was awake, and being out in the open, there weren't any guards to be suspicious. Iona stared at her Thane, eyes wide in shock and in anger. How dare she keep something like this from her? How dare she?

"I suppose you have questions." Melvalie said casually. She regained composure, standing straight up, arms crossed at her chest as if to assert dominance. Never mind the fact that as a Nord, Iona towered over her by a good two heads worth of height.

"You want to explain what you were doing?" Iona demanded, her eyebrows coming together, very expressive of her displeasure in the matter. Her hand motioned towards the direction of the cabin. "What the hell was that?" Melvalie retained her ground, looking stoic at her housecarl. She broke her arms apart, one now sitting on her hip, the other polishing her nails on the leather of her armor.

"Come off it Iona. You saw what happened, you know exactly what it was. I'll be damned if you start playing dumb after all this time knowing you."

"Of course I know what it was!" Iona spat back, taking a step closer to her Thane, eyes glinting in rage now. "You were feeding off of him weren't you?"

"Her, actually." Melvalie corrected, recrossing her arms, remembering her victim was a female. "But yes." Iona straightened herself up, her face showing contempt at the Dunmer woman.

"All this time I was travelling with a monster." At this, Melvalie frowned, her orange eyes flickering between trying to remain stoic and showing her disapproval with how her housecarl was behaving. After all this time travelling together, and Iona immediately turns on her saying she was a monster as soon as she sees her feeding. Sure, a majority of vampires were feral beasts who'd renounced their humanity. They retreated to become recluses in caves, living as animals until someone unfortunate stepped into their territory or they couldn't take the bloodlust anymore and went out to hunt. Melvalie wasn't like that. She retained her civilized nature, feeding only when necessary, and making sure never to kill someone with her feeding. The only time her feeding and death were related was when she took blood from the corpse of a bandit that had attacked her first, or when she'd finished with a contract and needed the boost.

"Calm down. I'm no monster. If you go back to that cabin, the woman is fine. Dizzy, probably, but fine. None of the people I've fed off of met their deaths because of it." She argued, pointing a graceful finger back to the cabin as she spoke. Iona stared at her, eyes darting back and forth over Melvalie's face, looking for a break, something to tell her she was being lied to, but she found nothing.

Iona's mind began to race, trying to recall times in their adventures where her Thane would've fed or snuck off to do so while she wasn't looking. Then, she began to ask herself if she'd ever been fed off of. Her eyes widened as she instinctively slapped a hand to her neck as if to cover it and inspect it for bite marks.

"Did you-"

"I said calm down."

"Have you taken blood from me?" Iona's voice was beginning to sound desperate. Her face expressed her anxiety. Melvalie simply raised an eyebrow, moving to brush her fingers through her ebony hair.

"No." When she was done combing through her locks, both hands rested on her hips. "Too risky. I wouldn't have been able to explain how you'd gotten a wound on your neck reasonably so I stayed away, opting to feed either before or wait until after we'd done travelling. This time, however, my last contract not only took longer than I'd hoped, but I didn't get a chance to feed before regrouping with you. The bodies were destroyed before I had the opportunity."

"Then-"

"I've never taken blood from you, Iona." Melvalie repeated, rolling her eyes in exasperation. She felt vexed with her housecarl at the moment. Breaking and entering into some poor or not so poor sod's house to steal belongings? Okay. Her Thane killing contracts? Sure. Being a vampire and doing what she must to survive? Impossible to wrap her head around, apparently. Melvalie reasoned that maybe she herself was being unreasonable at her housecarl's discomfort in the matter, but she personally didn't see what the issue was. She didn't see the understanding in someone being okay to kill bandits and other such people for missions, but found it incorrigible that Melvalie could be a vampire.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Iona's voice dropped, along with her hand.

"Oh well, I was figuring out how. Maybe with a fruit basket. _Everyone_ loves those." Melvalie quipped sarcastically. At Iona's frown, she clicked her tongue and answered earnestly. "I figured you'd act just like this. That's why."

Silence hung in the air between the two women for several moments before Iona broke it.

"That woman won't turn into one will she?" Iona asked, turning her head to look back in the direction.

"Oh Mara, no. If feeding turned people, there'd be more of us than normal people walking around. It's a delicate process and a tad more complicated." Melvalie usually invoked Sithis in her conversations, but used the nine divines around Iona because that's what she was familiar with. Her housecarl didn't know she was Dark Brotherhood and she didn't want her to know just yet. Better not dump two big things on her today.

More silence.

"Okay." Iona's voice sounded out finally, nodding slightly.

"Okay?" Melvalie's eyebrow and lip quirked upward.

"Okay. I can accept this about you, my Thane." Iona showed a small smile of her own, brushing a hand back through her short copper hair to calm herself down some more. "Just...I don't know...if you absolutely need blood while we're travelling, let me know. You can have mine." She offered. This made Melvalie grin.

"Oh _really_?" Melvalie challenged playfully.

"Yes. I am your sword, your shield, and also your friend. And friends won't let their friends suffer. If you ever need blood and I'm around, don't hesitate. Let me know." Iona held a hand out to Melvalie, who looked down to it before looking back at her housecarl, a proud smirk on her face, taking her hand in hers. Iona grasped it and shook it once with determination, sealing their agreement, but their hands remained clasped for a moment afterwards.

Iona acted spontaneously and pulled her Thane in for a hug. Her arm wrapped around Melvalie's waist while her other arm was more relaxed, hand reaching up to gently cup the Dunmer woman's head. Melvalie's eyes widened, not expecting this and arms stuck out comically on either side of her, parallel to the ground below her. It took a few seconds, but Melvalie relented and returned the hug. She smiled to herself at the show of affection...also because at her height, her head was resting comfortably above Iona's well-endowed chest.

"You can tell me anything. You know that, right Mel?" The taller woman asked right by Melvalie's ear.

"Well sure _now_ I do." Melvalie retorted, smile still on her face. Iona responded with letting out a huff of breath in a small laugh and released the hug.

"Good. You better." There was a bit of comfortable silence this time before Melvalie was the one to break the silence again.

"We should either set up camp or keep moving." She surveyed the area.

"Let's camp out. It's a peaceful night." Iona commented, looking up at the stars and the patterns of lights dancing around the sky. Melvalie smiled and made an affirmative sound in agreement. The Dunmer woman began making a campfire while Iona worked on getting their sleeping rolls set up.

Well, at least Melvalie knew Iona could be trusted; with this, anyway.

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*End


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